The Height of Cool
by RageLikeRipred
Summary: The years of Hogwarts through the eyes of Verity Barnesman, with her seven, yes, seven best friends at her side. It’s a crazy world out there. You gotta know how to survive it. Lily and Snape don't exist, its Marauder era.
1. First Year: New People Are Fun

Hey! Thanks for checking out this fic, The Height of Cool. The title is a reference to something Lupin says in OotP when Harry is upset about Snape's worst memory. It's Sirius/OC James/OC (Lily doesn't exist and neither does Snape) and possibly Remus/OC.

Summary: The years of Hogwarts through the eyes of Verity Barnesman, with her seven (yes, seven) best friends at her side. It's a crazy world out there. You gotta know how to survive it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plot and my OCs. Oh wait! I own my house. Crap, no, I don't own that either.

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I pulled my wavy chestnut-brown hair out of its ponytail and shook it around. Hopefully it didn't look too messy. I didn't want to look trashy for my arrival on Platform 9 ¾. It was my first year at Hogwarts. I combed my fingers through the full bangs that covered my forehead. I did this partly because they were messy, and partly because this was what I always did when I was nervous.

"Verity, we're about to reach the barrier between platforms nine and ten," came my mother Joanne's sing-song voice, "When we get there you need to run straight at the wall."

"I know, mom. I'm well versed in the subject of all things Hogwarts."

A new voice chimed in. "Yeah, mom she knows. We all know. It's not like we're Muggle-born," said my sister Devon.

"Hey!" my mother exclaimed. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with being Muggle-born and don't you forget it!"

Devon laughed. "How could we? You were Muggle-born yourself and you turned out alright!" After a death glare from Mom, she tacked on, "Kidding," with a sheepish smile.

"Anyway, you're going into your third year, Devon, so tell me again what new classes you're taking."

Devon flipped her dirty blonde hair and launched into a full-blown speech about how great Care of Magical Creatures was going to be. She also mentioned how she had signed on for Divination because her friend Katie told her all you had to do was make up stuff about your perpetual doom for the professor.

I trailed slightly as I thought of Hogwarts. What House would I be sorted into? Who would my new friends be? Probably whoever I met on the train. What would the classes be like?

All at once, I was standing in front of the dividing barrier between platforms nine and ten. I felt a sort of gravitational pull just begging me to close the space between my body and the seemingly solid brick.

Oh yeah, did I say I was a bit of a drama queen?

"Go," my mother told me, "Hayden's already waiting on the other side." Hayden was my oldest sister, my elder by five years. She was going to be a sixth year. She was tall, blonde, and beautiful, just like Devon and my mom. I was the only one in the family with my dad Edward's hair color. And it's not that I wasn't pretty, I just wasn't exquisitely gorgeous like all the rest of the females in my family.

I ran at the only thing keeping me from the Hogwarts Express. A strange tingling sensation came over me and when I opened my eyes to the light, I saw the great maroon steam engine that would carry me to my new home. Or school. Whatever.

Mom and Devon had already emerged behind me. "Okay, Verity, Devon, you had best be getting aboard the train. I love you both, have a great time!" And with that, she rushed to catch Hayden before it was too late.

To myself I whispered, "Oh, mother, must you call me Verity?" Verity was my full name, but I much preferred Vera. This wasn't because I hated Verity, I just thought it was a bit of a mouthful, and it sounded kind of formal.

Devon spoke up. "I'll walk you onto the train and help you get situated, but then I'm gonna go sit in a compartment with my friends. Does that sound okay?"

"I guess so," I responded. I was a bit distracted with a building nausea in my core.

"Don't be nervous. You'll be just fine." So, we marched on, got our luggage all in its proper place, and climbed aboard the streamliner. Devon and I sifted through compartments, looking for an empty or nearly empty one. Finally, we came to one that held only one girl, who was obviously a first year as well as me.

Devon looked at me pointedly. When I made not a move, she prompted, "Well? Go sit with her!"

"But I have absolutely no idea who she is!"

"So? Just introduce yourself and you'll end up friends, I promise. Oh, unless she's a future Slytherin. But then, at least you'll probably be civil to each other."

"Thanks," I said in a sarcastic drawl, "You're a lot of help."

Devon just rolled her eyes and slid open the compartment door. "See you at supper," she stated, and retreated through the doorway, slipping the door closed again on her way out.

I turned to face the other girl. She had striking, straight whitish-blonde hair and an elegance about her. She seemed graceful, majestic and dignified without giving off an air of haughtiness, and I felt that she was quite approachable.

"Hi," I announced.

"Hi," she stated back affably. "I'm Kayla."

"My name's Verity, but you can call me Vera," I declared.

"That's a nice name. Why don't you sit down?"

"Excellent!" I said contentedly as I made my way to sit across from Kayla. I had already made my first friend. Kayla and I chatted about the coming year excitedly, and we discovered we had very much in common. We were in the middle of a laughing fit over a story Kayla was telling me about her sixth birthday and slipping in giant mud puddles (not sure how we got to that topic) when two more girls our age appeared at the door.

We both smiled at them as a gesture of welcome. The girl on our right had skin just a tiny bit more tan than both Kayla and mine (Kayla had very pale, ivory skin whereas mine was more creamy) and wavy blond hair in a cut similar to mine. This girl's hair was a deeper, richer blonde than Kayla's. The girl standing to our left was Asian and had dark, curly hair that fell in ringlets just over her shoulders. They were both notably pretty.

"Can we sit here?" The dark-haired girl queried. "I'm Lyla and this is Caitlin."

"Sure, no problem," I said smiling. More new friends were always fun. I loved meeting people.

So the four of us talked, and we talked and before long we were the closest of friends.

"I hope we're all in the same House," Caitlin voiced.

"Yeah," added Lyla, "What House do you girls think you'll be in?"

"For me, probably Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," was my response. "My eldest sister's in Ravenclaw, and the middle sister in my family is in Gryffindor."

"I honestly have no idea," Kayla said. "I'm an only child and I'm Muggle-born so I have nothing to base this on."

"Well, I'm a sure-fire for Gryffindor," Lyla answered her own question. "The whole line of witches and wizards in the magical half of my family were. And really, what else would I be?" The other two girls in the compartment and I contemplated that and decided too that Lyla was nothing but Gryffindor material.

But before Caitlin could put her thoughts into quotations, I noticed Kayla's sharp glare directed at the compartment door.

"Kayla, what…" I whipped my head around to look at the entrance.

Sure enough, the door was shifted open and four guys our age were crowded in the doorway. Two were smiling humorously, and two were just plain staring. The two unsmiling boys looked a bit unsure of why it is they were there.

Kayla's fierce glare stayed glued to her features. "Hey! You're eavesdropping," she claimed hotly.

One boy with glasses and dark hair on the short side that stuck up at the back flopped down next to Caitlin, who was closest to him. He had been one of the smiling boys. "Of course we are. What else would we be doing?" Kayla chose to ignore that last comment and instead focused on what the boy said first.

"Why were you listening in on us?" She demanded.

"Relax. We four were just walking by, and your door was open. All we heard were you lot talking about what Houses you thought you would be in," the other grinning boy put forth. He took a seat next to Lyla, across from his friend. This boy's hair was just as dark if not darker, and it was a bit longer, but not overly lengthy.

I couldn't help but be a little amused when Kayla, who was still clearly unhappy with these guys, raised an eyebrow and inquired, "Did we invite you to sit with us?"

"No," the bespectacled boy retorted, "we invited ourselves, which is just as good."

"Whatever," Lyla said huffily. She continued to face the remaining two boys and added, "Are you going to sit down in our **already crowded** (with a pointed look at the two smilers) compartment, or would you prefer to stand there like idiots blocking the door? And close it this time, like you should have when you were walking by."

"Diss," Caitlin spoke softly as the sandy-headed boy and slightly chubby boy made their way to a seat.

"So, let's make introductions," I heard the boy with glasses say. "I'm James Potter."

"Sirius Black," James' longish-haired friend said with and inclination of his head.

"My name's Remus Lupin," The boy with sandy colored hair said.

"And I'm Peter Pettigrew," the shorter one said. He was a bit largish around the middle.

I put forward, "I'm Verity Barnesman, but please just call me Vera." Sirius Black's head snapped up as I said Barnesman.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun twisting your name up," he laughed eerily. I gave him a funny look and then tuned into what Caitlin was saying.

"Caitlin Honewake here," she was stating.

Next, Lyla declared with pride, "I'm Lyla Konoshi. Japanese, and proud!"

Lastly, Kayla said with her head down, "Kayla Vendera." She wasn't meeting anyone's eye. It looked to me as if she was still a bit reluctant about befriending this group of boys, but had given up on getting them out of the compartment.

"Awesome," James continued, "So when we so rudely ("Not," Sirius cut in, earning a scowl from Kayla) interrupted, you girls were going on about what Houses you would be in. I'm positive that we four are all going to be in Gryffindor," he said in reference to his friends.

I was rather selfishly enjoying Kayla's reaction to this whole situation. "What makes you so sure, Potter?"

"It's James," James corrected quickly.

"James," Kayla muttered grudgingly.

"And I'm sure because I just have a good feeling about all of this," he went on. "Just one of those feelings where you know it's gonna turn out alright."

"I know the feeling," I answered. I was experiencing it right now.

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Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoyed it!! Please, please, please review. That button gets so lonely sometimes and you know that deep in your heart you just want to press its guts out. Except for, its guts would be weird, they'd be all computery-wirey... but yes, no, contrary to popular belief, I'm not insane thank you for asking.


	2. Sorting

A/N: Here's the second chapter even though NO ONE reviewed, although I got tons of hits! I just felt like getting it up, so I did! Everyone who reads this should review now! There are no excuses, lol. just kidding about all the ranting, but please do review. And you're going to have to pretend Demi Lovato exists at this era for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I already told you, I don't own any of this Harry Potter stuff! Except my OCs. I do believe I own them, but I don't really know the rules of owning something, so. Yeah, I own my OCs.

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The eight of us talked for what must have been hours until Kayla brought up the good question of what the time was. I knew she was probably asking because she had convinced herself that she couldn't wait to be free of these guys, even though I could tell she was intrigued by their personalities. I found myself, as well, enjoying their company.

Remus checked his watch briefly. "Two hours to go, six elapsed."

"Wow," Peter remarked, "the time just flew!"

Sirius added, "we've all got to get changed into our school robes. Don't worry," he said with a joking smirk, "we won't look."

I smacked him upside the head playfully, but hard. "There's nothing to look at. We're just slipping the robes over our clothes."

After getting settled in her witches' robes, Kayla inspected her reflection in the window. "I hate my hair, it's always all messy all the time."

James looked at her like she was crazy and blurted, "What are you talking about? Your hair is beautiful!"

Kayla didn't say anything, but blushed and looked down, her fingers resting on the ends of her white-blond hair that fell to about the center of her ribcage. I figured that she felt really flattered by James's comment, because she wasn't sour anymore for the rest of the train ride.

It was a bittersweet moment as we pulled into the train stop. The ride had been so much fun. But that's what they say, the journey's half the fun.

All eight of us clambered out of the compartment and got off the train. A voice reached us through the layered wall of Hogwarts students.

"Firs' years, here! Firs' years!" I glanced at my friends and we approached the gigantic gamekeeper of Hogwarts, Hagrid.

Hagrid led us to a series of small boats. My three girlfriends and I climbed into one boat, while our guy friends claimed the one beside us.

The sailing trip was pretty non-eventful. We watched the scenery around the Black Lake, or so Hagrid had called it, and waited for the famous approaching view of Hogwarts. Hayden had told me that it was one of the most impressive, breathtaking things she had ever experienced.

At long last, we were nearing the castle. A monstrous outline was visible in the haze of the night. And then, without warning, Hogwarts was revealed.

Caitlin, Lyla, Kayla, and I all crowded to the bow of the boat to get a good look. The fortress-like superstructure was stunning. We all stayed at the tip of the boat until it showed every sign of flipping. We relaxed into our seats once more, but kept our eyes stuck on the great construction. It was shrouded in mist just perfectly, and looked simply magical.

We advanced to a shore. My friends and I left our small sailing ship and got our feet on dry land. Soon after rejoining our guy friends, we first years were ushered into a hallway in the Hogwarts castle.

Standing at the end of the corridor before two great stone doors was an aged woman with graying hair in a neat bun. She wore a witch's hat and robe. We approached her and she began to speak.

"I'm Professor McGonagall. Now you will be sorted into your respective Houses, They are Gryffindor (James and Sirius gave a loud whoop and received a glower from Professor McGonagall), Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The Sorting will now begin.

We walked into a huge dining hall where there were four long tables, and I guessed that each belonged to a House. All the first years crowded around a hat on a stool. The hat opened its mouth (I know, right?) and sang a song. After its singing finished, Professor McGonagall began to call out names from a list. Then, I heard my name.

"Barnesman, Verity!" I froze for just one second. Why did this have to be alphabetical order? None of my friends had tried on that hat yet. I shook myself back into the present and forced my feet towards the Sorting Hat. I sat nervously on the stool, and I could feel my legs shaking. I wondered if my friends could see my shaky limbs.

I felt the Hat placed on the top of my head, and it covered my eyes. A voice spoke into my ear, and I knew that no one but me could hear it.

"A Barnesman, eh? I remember your sisters. So different, such conflicting thoughts. But you… I see… you may not know it yet, but you have plenty to discover, and the House that will take you there will be…GRYFFINDOR!"

The Sorting Hat had shouted that last word out loud. I noticed the Gryffindor table cheering and clapping for me, so I made my way over. I wasn't quite sure where to sit down, so I took a seat in between a group of gossiping girls and some boys who were raptly focused on the Sorting.

Suddenly, a recognizable name was called.

"Black, Sirius!" The hall was silent as my friend stepped up to the stool and McGonagall perched the Hat atop his head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Not a soul clapped. Not one person said a word.

Sirius gave an easy smile, found my face, and winked at me. I raised my eyebrows back carefully. The dark-haired boy came to sit with me.

"What was that all about?" I was whispering, but the silence made it seem that the whole world could hear me.

The smile never left Sirius's face as he told me, "I'm a pure blood. My whole family and all of my ancestors were in Slytherin."

I blinked rapidly and stared at him. And then, a thought crossed my mind. _Why be dramatic about this? _He wasn't showing it, but Sirius was probably worried about being judged because of his family. So, I surprised myself.

I laughed. I laughed loud, so every single person in the Great Hall could hear me. I was the only one making a noise, apart from Sirius who was laughing with me. When I calmed down, I high-fived him.

The Sorting continued, but people kept shooting Sirius and I wary glances. Finally, another face I knew climbed the steps to the Sorting Hat. It was Caitlin.

She put the Hat on and after a couple of seconds on her head, it yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Yes, that was another of my friends that would be sitting here at mealtimes with me. Caitlin took a seat across from Sirius and me. We exchanged a quick smile and continued watching fellow first-years get sorted.

"Konoshi, Lyla!" The hat had not yet touched her head when it shouted out her House, Gryffindor. Lyla came and sat down with us.

This was going just too well. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but it was beginning to look as if all my friends would be in my same House.

"Lupin, Remus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" Remus breathed a sigh of relief and walked, kind of fast, to us. He sat between Caitlin and Lyla.

Another of our friends was called. "Pettigrew, Peter!" The Hat sat on his head for a bit and then shouted that he was to be placed in Gryffindor. He, too, sat down with us, next to Sirius.

"Potter, James!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" We all cheered once more as James sat down on my other side.

Our last friend was one of the few remaining first years. "Vendera, Kayla!"

She sat down on the stool with a calm demeanor. The Hat was on her head for what seemed like an eternity, but it finally shouted…

"GRYFFINDOR!" Kayla grinned and strolled to us. She took her seat in between James and I, and he smirked as she did so. I raised one brow and shot a knowing grin his way. _Looks like someone's already got a crush._

Soon the Sorting ceremony was finished, and dinner commenced. It wasn't long until Devon was walking to me lazily, taking her sweet time. When she reached me at last, she gave me a quick hug.

"I'm proud of you, Vera," she said as she ruffled up my hair. I patted my brown locks down as she left.

"Kayla turned to me and asked, "Is that your sister? Devon, right?" I had told her about Devon and Hayden on the long train ride.

"Yeah," I answered.

Dinner was ordinary, but fun. My friends and I looked around at the Great Hall and just let our surroundings sink in.

It was in the middle of the meal that Kayla said, "You know, you could be an eleven-year old Demi Lovato." **(A/N: pretend Demi Lovato exists atthis period in time!)**

I could feel the creases in my skin as my eyebrows pulled down. "What?"

"Demi Lovato's a big teenage star in the Muggle world. She looks just like you, but she's sixteen or something."

"Oh," I came out with.

A prefect showed us to the Gryffindor common room and told us the password. Then, Kayla, Caitlin, Lyla, and I got settled in our dorm room. The fifth girl rooming with us was a girl named Sidney, who seemed nice enough, but we didn't really have that much in common and she seemed to have made her own friends anyway.

Before long, my first experience with Hogwarts was over and I had to let the darkness of slumber envelope me if I was to be in any good shape for classes the next day.

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You know what you should do now? I do. Yes, it would be just right if you reviewed. Even if you really didn't like it.

**REVIEW PLEASE!**

Aren't I just jolly?


	3. I Know, I'm Hilarious

Hey hey hey! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted, and so on!!!!! I loved writing this chapter so, so much. Please review it! I want to know what you think, even if you didn't like it so much.

**HPLUVR1495 - **Thanks for reviewing! The reason I didn't put Snape and Lily in this is because: I love Lily, but I don't like writing her, and for Snape, I only didn't put him in because Lily wasn't in it. Snape is my favorite character, Lol. Anyway, trust me the story gets better in later chapters, although there isn't a lot of adventure or anything. Sorry! It's basically just scenes in her life leading up to what happens at the end.

**Rapunzel27 - **Alright, I WILL be jolly! haha. Thanks for reviewing!

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The next day came speedily.

I greeted the light by rolling out of bed, literally. I landed on my face. And trust me, the floor isn't as comfortable as the beds at Hogwarts. I wandered my way through the day, going to breakfast, classes and such. So far, I loved this school.

I was walking to Transfiguration with Sirius when we ran into Alex, the fifth guy, in the Marauders' (as the guys had titled themselves) dorm.

Now, here's what you ought to know about Alex. He's got sort of a crush on me. I know, already? But, he won't stop staring at me, and he always blushes when I'm near him. I try to be nice, but he's quite annoying when he's being a spluttering idiot. Another reason for my dislike of him is that he, James, and Sirius kind of clash. They don't like each other. And it's tense when James and Sirius are forced to be in close proximity with Alex.

How do I know this after one and a half days? Well, the reason I'm such a drama queen inside my head is because I'm observant, and I read people. I always know where the drama is.

So, Alex is approaching Sirius and I, Sirius is frowning with narrowed eyes, and I'm thinking holy crap.

"Wow, Verity," Alex remarks (another thing about Alex is that he insists on using my full name), "I didn't know you and Black were friends." He's trying to act pleasant, but he's blinking excessively, and I know he's annoyed. Blinking a lot always means someone's lying.

And then, just because he feels like giving Alex grief, Sirius throws an arm around my shoulders and says, "Oh, definitely. She and I are the best of friends." It's cruel and I feel bad, but it's just too good of an opportunity to miss out on, so I mirror Sirius's actions.

"Yeah," I say, "Sirius is about my (I make a show of counting on my fingers)… fifth favorite person at Hogwarts."

"Of course," Sirius continued, "I'm her-- wait what? I thought I would be your fourth favorite!" It was obvious we hadn't discussed this.

I smiled sweetly and said, "Yes, but I decided I liked Remus better than you." We had a silent battle before whipping our heads back around to face Alex in perfect unison. "Sorry, he gets like this sometimes," I said, while I jokingly flicked his head with my other hand. His shoulders contracted as he flinched a bit.

He reached a hand up to his hair and said, "Hey! Fragile…"

"Fine," I did a fancy twirl out from under his arm, stroked my shoulders and pressed on, "Hey! Fragile…"

I smirked at Sirius and paid Alex no mind as I stayed on my course to Transfiguration.

The dark-haired boy caught up with me as I strolled, relaxed, into McGonagall's classroom. I took seat next to Kayla, and Sirius sat on my other side, and that was next to James. Lyla and Caitlin were to Kayla's left and Remus and Peter were to James's right.

I sat through Transfiguration, taking brief notes. When we were handed turtles to try and turn them red, I tried it out a couple of times, but had only managed to turn the shell scarlet, and not the whole of the reptile. Suddenly, a torn piece of parchment found its way onto my desktop.

I opened the folded sheaf of paper. It was a note from Kayla.

_So, why did Alex walk in all in a huff, trailing behind you and Sirius? There a story behind that? _she had written.

I gave a silent chuckle and recounted the story all on paper for Kayla. Once she was through reading it, she sent the note back my way.

_That's hilarious, _it read. _I know, I'm hilarious,_ is what I wanted to write back, but the paper was snatched off my desk my a pair of withered hands.

"There shall be no passing notes in my class, ladies," McGonagall's sharp voice sounded. She read over the note with a stern expression, but I could have sworn I saw a small smile cross her face as she drifted away without giving us a punishment. Hmm, maybe the dislike for Alex was mutual. Did that guy have any friends? Oh well. I always knew McGonagall was cool.

Kayla and I shared a brief shrug and returned to our work. After a bit more trying, I had finally managed to completely turn the turtle a brilliant red. I was glad that I wasn't reprimanded for not finishing like Sirius and James were.

Later in the common room after dinner, the girls and I were talking on a couch and Sirius and James were opposite us trying to complete their Transfiguration homework, which was turning their turtles red. I was laughing at them, but Kayla was trying to contain her annoyance that they couldn't do it. She was gazing at James's turtle. After he had managed to give it three heads and inch long nails, Kayla couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh, lemme do it!" She grabbed James's turtle and turned it perfectly back to normal, and then red.

"Well at least someone here knows what they're doing," I commented.

Sirius glared. Days like these were funny.

"Whatever," Sirius said. "I'm going up to the dorm. See ya, Dee."

"Who's Dee?" Lyla asked him.

"Dee is Vera."

"And where did that come from?" I wanted to know.

Sirius continued, "'cause the 'ty' at the end of your full name sounds like 'Dee' when you say it fast. So, I'm calling you Dee now."

"…Okay."

"Yeah." And he left up the stairs.

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So. Did you like it, or not so much? What did you think was funny?

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	4. Second Year: Swarthy Barman

Hey all! So this starts in the second day of Dee's (Verity's) second year at Hogwarts. Thank you to everybody who reviewed, alerted, read, favorited, and so on. Oh, and I completely made up "Hinderoot". Anyway, I've been forgetting to put disclaimers in so here:

Disclaimer: I so don't own Harry Potter. If I had that kind of creative genius within me, I'd write another series and have millions of trillions of dollars. Then I'd get all paranoid about it and not trust the bank and convert it into one bill and keep it under my mattress and never spend any of it. But that's beside the point.

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"Swarthy Barman!"

I made a growl-esque noise in the back of my throat.

"UghArgharghargharghARGH!"

I counted to ten, and then continued, completely calm, "_**WHAT?**_"

"Hah," Sirius laughed. "You actually responded. That's your weakness, you know. You react when people call you names."

"Well," I countered as we walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, "I don't think your stupid name for me even counts. I mean I get the 'Barman' part, it's for 'Barnesman', but where did you get 'swarthy'?"

"See, over the summer," Sirius said gleefully, with a wicked grin, "I looked up the name meaning of 'Dee'. And it means 'swarthy' in Welsh."

"Really, does it? Well, that's pleasant. Anyway, I get to blame it on you because you're the only one who calls me Dee."

Sirius retorted, "So you don't like my nickname for you?"

"No, I like it," I continued airily, "But it's your own fault for naming me 'Swarthy'."

"Hmm. Well, I suppose it is." We had made our way into the grand room at the heart of Hogwarts (sort of) and were now sitting at the Gryffindor table with all our friends. After this meal, it would be off to more Second-year classes. Yay, it makes me so darn excited I think I'll just pee my robes. Actually, that might be a good way to get out of Herbology.

It was our second day back at school for our second year and Sirius had been calling me 'Swarthy Barman' nonstop ever since the Hogwarts Express ride. It's extremely annoying.

I walked with Kayla and Lyla to Double Herbology with the Ravenclaws. Caitlin had to retreat to the dorms, for she had forgotten her textbook.

A sudden calling interrupted my thoughts, "Hey! Vera!" I pulled an about face to find my sister Hayden rushing towards me.

"No chewing gum in class!"

Correction. My _Head Girl_ sister Hayden.

"I'm not even in class yet!"

"Yes, but you wouldn't have spit it out before it started, I know you like the back of my hand."

"Okay…maybe you're right," I answered, aggravated.

"I'll have to dock you points. Five points from Gryffindor."

I didn't care that much. "Really? Five? For gum?" I inquired nonchalantly. I wasn't too surprised. Hayden never was one for nepotism.

"Yes, now be on your way to class."

Caitlin rejoined us a couple seconds later. It seemed she had caught the whole run in with Hayden from across the grass.

"What was that all about?" she wondered.

I said, "We got held up with Hayden. She docked me points for chewing gum." Caitlin made a weird face and we continued into Greenhouse number one.

For that Herbology lesson, we were paired into matches, given partners for the day. Caitlin was with Remus, Peter was with a Ravenclaw girl I hadn't paid any attention to the name of, Lyla was with a remarkably good-looking Ravenclaw boy with dark hair named Davis Plyth, Kayla was with (retch) Alex, Sirius was with my dorm-mate Sidney, and I was partnered up with James. We were to separate chutes of Hinderoot from the inside of the contorted branches it thrived in. This, however, was dangerous, because of the vicious pixie-like creatures that lived around and fed off of the Hinderoot.

I, of course, was put up to this task alone, thanks to James's distracted, aloof unhelpfulness. He was busy throwing jealous glares at Alex and Kayla, even though she was clearly avoiding his touching his hands…his arms…just about avoiding his skin all together. I swear James can be such a creep. So, instead of trying to get James to cooperate, I chatted with Sirius and Sidney through my work process.

"So, Sidney," I started amiably. "What did you do over break?"

She had a little twinkle in her eye as she got into a story. "Well, my family and I traveled to Canada. It's really beautiful there. Our hotel was great, but it wasn't easily recognized, and once my mum got lost and my dad and I were sitting around waiting for her for nearly two ours. It turns out, there were several hotels of a similar name, so that's why she couldn't find her way back from the store she had gone to!"

"Oh, that's cool," I remarked.

Sirius took a breath to talk about what **he** had done over the summer, but I stopped him. "I know, I know. You snuck out every night, went to the beach, concerts, trip to Spain, your life is awesome and whatnot, story over. We've only heard it one hundred times." Sidney laughed and Sirius mocked offended-ness.

Soon Herbology was over, and I had successfully removed the Hinderoot from its branch. I had a couple nicks on my fingers from the evil Hinderoot creatures, but they didn't bother me. As soon as the guys, the girls, and I ducked out of the greenhouse, James zoomed straight to Kayla's side, throwing a menacing face at Alex, just for good measure. Everyone knew that Alex didn't like Kayla that way. He still liked me that way, which still made me gag.

Lyla inched away from the guys, and indicated for us to follow.

"What is it?" I heard Caitlin say.

"Oh, I just wanted to talk about Herbology," Lyla said back, off-handedly.

"Really?" Kayla raised one eyebrow, "because Herbology so totally wasn't two seconds ago."

"Okay, more like, what happened in Herbology…who happened in Herbology."

And then it was a historic moment.

Lyla Konoshi blushed.

For realsies.

I tackled her in a hug and chanted, "Lyla's got a crush, Lyla's got a crush," in a sing-song elementary voice.

"It's Davis Plyth," Caitlin said without thought. It was automatic, she already knew.

"Wait, how did you figure it out?" Lyla asked.

"Oh, Remus and I were observing you, so to speak."

"Oh god. So if you know then…"

"Remus knows," Caitlin finished.

"Urgh," Lyla joked, "that is so unforgivable. Remus is gonna tell the Marauders and then Sirius or James'll let it slip, and soon it'll get back to Davis. My life is over in a matter of weeks."

"Relax," Caitlin giggled. "I made Remus promise he wouldn't tell anyone."

Lyla scrunched up her features. "And just how is that going to help anything?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised, Remus listens to me. He's a very trustworthy guy," Caitlin concluded.

"Whatever you say. Anyway, Davis is amazing. He's funny, good-looking, kind, and waaaaaaaaaay smarter than me." Lyla looked down, and I was so happy. I'd never seen Lyla flustered by a boy before.

Later, after classes and dinner, I retired into my dorm. Today had been another of many long days.

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How did you like it? You should definitely review, because if you don't, I might not post the next chapter as soon. And I accept anonymous reviews, even though I prefer logged-in users to review. Anyway, tell me watcha thought, or any mistakes you saw, anything that you thought was funny, whatever. Please **REVIEW**. Thanks!!!!


	5. Catch Me!

So this chapter is insanely short. It's just a fun little scene. It takes place in April of their second year. Have fun reading, and please review. Tell me what you thought was funny, and so on. Oh, and if you think this story is getting boring, please just stay, erm, tuned for the next few chapters at least. They're really, really exciting and have a lot more adventure in them.

Disclaimer: I don't won Harry Potter, so stop asking me. Lol.

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James shouted, "Hey, Kayla!"

We were in the midst of April here at Hogwarts. The time had flown by.

Kayla ignored James as he shouted her name repeatedly. She was ascending upon the staircase to the girls' dormitories.

"Kay, I think someone's calling your name," I announced lamely.

"Yeah," she responded over her shoulder, "Like they don't call it everyday."

Caitlin and Lyla giggled. Kayla smirked.

Kayla had only climbed a couple of steps when James got up to go follow her. I had no idea why he was so desperate to talk to her. But, he was approaching the set of stairs, and he jogged up a couple after her until something changed.

The steps transformed before our eyes into a sleek ramp of stone, which replaced the stairs completely. James slipped, naturally, and slid down the smooth surface quite clumsily. He was disgruntled.

"What the-"

He did a barrel roll out of the way as Kayla came sliding down the ramp neatly, heading towards him as it was the only direction to go.

"What the hell was that?" James asked.

"That was what happens when someone of the male gender goes trying to get into the rooms girls live in," Caitlin put simply.

Kayla nodded smugly as she came back to the couch to sit by me.

I had not known that. "Ooh! I want to try. I ran towards the stairs leading up to the dorms that belonged to the boys. I bounded up them, but they hadn't turned into a slide, or anything similar.

"What happened?" I was just slightly disappointed.

"It doesn't work for the opposite way around?" guessed Lyla. She must have not known either about the forbiddance of guys near the girls' rooms.

"Exactly," Kayla said, "In the making of the school, "boys were considered untrustworthy. Or, at least less trustworthy than girls. That's why females can climb the stairs leading to boy dormitories, but boys can't climb the girls' staircases.

"Oh," was my answer. "You know what? I don't really feel like climbing down these stairs."

"Well that's just too bad," Sirius spoke up, lifting himself from his lazy position on the sofa. He came to stand at the bottom of the steps, and Remus and Peter followed suit. James quickly dusted himself off, then stood next to Sirius.

"Alright then," I continued, unbothered, "Since you four just conveniently arrived at the foot of the stairs, I'm going to jump, and one of you is going to catch me."

Sirius rolled his eyes and laughed while James, Peter, and Remus inched away, deciding I was serious.

"Great, I'm so glad you volunteered, Sirius!" I gushed sarcastically.

He started stammering random excuses instead of running like he should have. "What? I'm only twelve, I can't catch you! It's hard to support the weight of as many pounds as you are, and at a falling rate, your speed will accelerate, making you seem even heavier, and-"

But I had already jumped.

He held out his arms during my falling motion, bracing himself. I think he put his arms forward half to catch me, and half to shield himself.

And finally he had caught me, none too easily, but he hadn't dropped me at all. I hopped out of his arms and said, "Thanks!" cheerfully.

"Yeah," he muttered, narrowing his eyes. I just smirked in response.

I went back down to sit next to Kayla, who had taken a seat back on the couch. It seemed James had forgotten all about whatever he had wanted to tell her. He was too shaken by the sudden disappearance of the stairs.

I shook my head at his naivety and reclined, relaxing.

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Hope you liked it! Please please review. It doesn't take that long, and it makes me so very elated. Tell me verything you have to tell me, ina **REVIEW**. Please and thank you!


	6. Third Year: Christmas Eve

Hey to everyone! Here's the latest chapter of The Height Of Cool. It takes place in their third year but over Christmas break. It's Christmas Eve in this chapter. I'm about to put links to Dee, Lyla, Caitlin, and Devon's dresses in my profile. There's no link to Kayla's dress because I made that one up. And when you look at the dress pictures, disregard the shoes and accessories in the pictures, because I made my own shoes for them to wear. Anyway, read and review please!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, because otherwise my fics would be waaaaaay more well-known. And I don't own the dresses either.

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Ah, Christmastime.

Third year had been treating me great so far. I had chosen to take Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, just like Devon had when she was in third year. Care of Magical Creatures was pretty awesome, and Divination was plain easy. All you had to do was talk all about how you were going to die next Tuesday, and so on.

But now, I wasn't thinking so much about Hogwarts. I was thinking about Christmas, and celebrating it with all my friends and their families.

Joanne, my mum, and Edward, my dad, had invited my seven close friends, their siblings, and their parents to a Christmas Eve party. Except for Sirius. We had only invited him, as he had told us that his family were complete asses. In fact, I was worried he wouldn't make it somehow. Or not, er, worried, just, erm, you know.

It was Christmas Eve and Kayla, Caitlin, Lyla, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James would start showing up any minute. Oh yeah, and also some of Devon's friends and Hayden's boyfriend.

And then there was a doorbell ring, signifying the first guests had arrived to the party. It was Kayla and her parents, who I had found out in first year were Muggles. Her parents knew mine really well, as Kayla was my best friend, so it was good she was here first.

"Okay," she said, "show me the transformation."

I knew just what she was talking about. I led her to the living room which had been completely redone for this party yesterday. It was done with magic, of course.

The lights were a dim yellowish color, creating a nice atmosphere. The hard-wood floor was squeaky clean, and all furniture like sofas or chairs had been relocated to border the room, which made nice sitting space, and there was a nine-foot tall tree at the end of the space, in front of the bay window that displayed our front yard. There was soft music drifting in from somewhere, and the center of the room was meant to be a dance floor.

"Hmm…" Kayla said, appraising. Finally, she remarked approvingly, "Wow. Nice."

"I know," I replied. "And I didn't do any of it!"

She laughed, and it was a couple more minutes until Lyla, Caitlin, and their families showed up at the doorstep together. There at our door were Lyla, her older brother, and her parents, and Caitlin, her two older brothers, and her parents.

"Hi! Come on in," I ushered.

Right behind the group were James and his parents. I welcomed them in and called Kayla, Caitlin, and Lyla out so we could wait for guests out there. It was cold, and snow was getting all over our dresses, but we figured it was just water. And it was fun!

I was wearing a sort of edgy black strapless dress that was almost knee-length. It was the sort of dress that looked a bit crumpled-on-purpose and was creased in all the right places. My wavy brown hair was flowing loosely over my shoulders. I had on two-inch high heels that were black strappy sandal type things.

Lyla had straightened her normally curly, raven locks and was looking flashy in a short, metallic grey dress with spaghetti straps. It was sequined along he bottom. Her shoes were stylish grey flats.

Caitlin had pulled her wavy hair into a ponytail and had styled her normally side-swept bangs to be straight, full bangs. She was wearing a red dress with halter ties that reached just above the knee and had a sheer layer flowing over a glossy, solid red layer. She had on one-inch silver high heels and had a silver clutch in her hand.

Last but not least, Kayla looked angelic in a white dress that fell just past her knees. It had a sweetheart neckline and was very flowy. Her hair was done in nice, loose curls that cascaded down her back. Her three-inch silver heels made her taller than all of us, but not by too much.

My three friends and I clowned around outside until Hayden's boyfriend Henry, followed by Peter and his family, arrived. Next, I said a short, casual greeting to Devon's two best friends. They had come alone without their families.

Something interesting happened when Remus arrived. He advanced towards us and, I suppose I'm exaggerating a bit but, it seemed that Caitlin dove straight for him. She hugged him, and I could hear her breathe, "Hi," in his ear. When they let go, he greeted the rest of us, **completely without a hug**. When he was inside, Caitlin was looking a bit flushed.

I turned my head slowly to her after watching him go. "What was that?" I asked Caitlin.

"Nothing at all," she answered, a little too smiley.

"I think she's marking her territory," Lyla laughed.

"I think you're right," added Kayla.

Caitlin mock-glared at us and said, "Well I think you're all being stupid."

The only person left was Sirius. We waited for a couple minutes and he did not come. My friends wanted to go back inside and wait for him there, so I reluctantly agreed. What? I was having fun outside!

We had been inside for maybe five minutes when there was a ring from the doorbell, I opened the door and there was Sirius, alone as expected.

"ThankMerlin,you'rehereIwasbeginningtogetalittleworriedabouthowyouneededtosneakouttogethereandthenallthesehorriblethoughtscameintommindaboutyougettingcaught andthenhavingtoenduretheCruciatuscurseabunchoftimes,andthatwouldn'tbegoodnowwouldit?"

It took him a minute to dissect that I had just poured out, "Thank Merlin, you're here! I was beginning to get a little worried about how you needed to sneak out to get here and then all these horrible thoughts came into my mind about you getting caught and then having to endure the Cruciatus curse a bunch of times, and that wouldn't be good now would it?"

Then he responded with scrunched eyebrows, "_Someone_'s excited to see me…" and walked past. I was left at the door, glaring at empty winter air.

When I returned to the party, it was in full swing. Everyone was either dancing, or sitting and talking. I observed that Caitlin's eldest brother John was talking to the adults, being eighteen, and her middle brother, Ben, was gawking at Devon's "hotness" with Lyla's brother Joe. They were fifteen, just like her, and it was no big deal. I was used to guys falling all over my sisters.

Devon was wearing a black dress with tiny white polka dots and a black bow under the bust. **(A/N: Sorry I just can't describe Devon's dress well.)**

Hayden was dancing with Henry, now Ben was making his way over to Devon who was dancing with her friends, Joe was sulking, and then I spotted my seven friends in a kind of clump/circle on the dance floor.

I approached them and we all danced together. Then, a slow song came on and I danced with each of the Marauders. I talked with Remus about pros and cons of Animaguses **(A/N: Is it Animaguses or Animagi? Idk, I'm just going to write Animaguses from here on out)** , James and I had a staring contest during our dance, Peter told me what a success this party was, and then he passed me off to Sirius.

"So," Sirius said, "were you really that worried about me?"

"I don't know. Were you really that bummed about missing part of the party, like James said?"

I heard him mutter under his breath, "_He told you that?"_ then cough and continue, shortly, "That's not the same thing."

"It is the same thing and you know it." There was a brief silence as we swayed to the music.

Then, from by the window, Caitlin said, "Remus, come look at the moon, it's beautiful!"

Remus approached Caitlin, "Is it?"

He hadn't reached the window yet when she said, "Yeah, it's full."

Remus stopped in his tracks. "Oh shit," he said quietly. "You hear that Padfoot? **It's a full moon.**" Sirius froze.

I had no idea what was going on, and neither did Caitlin. She was looking back and forth, very confused.

"Holy asscrack," Sirius said as he withdrew his hands from my waist. He rushed to Remus and started talking very hurriedly. All I caught was something about seeing the moon, and then Remus said that he had not. They walked quickly to James and Peter. Caitlin and I were frozen to the spot, wondering what was happening.

Suddenly, the Marauders were darting out the door, losing no time. But Sirius doubled back and spoke directly to me when he said, "Stay here. Please, stay here."

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Did you enjoy it? Didja? Well, you should tell me. In a **REVIEW**. Uh-huh. Yes you should. All you have to to is press the button, write some stuff, and make me feel loved. The rate of which I receive reviews has been steadily decreasing for all my stories, so I'm wondering if people are still interested.

Thank you!

And please visit my profile and take part in my poll! Thanks to all!


	7. Unexpected

A/N: Hey to all! Here's chapter seven. There might be quite a few short author's notes in the midst of it, because of what happens. It's all very exciting! Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, I love you all! Oh, a good song to listen to during this whole chapter (just play it again if it ends) is "I Hate This Part" by the Pussycat Dolls. No, it doesn't make sense with the chapter at all really, but it sets a very good atmosphere. You must play the original version, no remixes.

Disclaimer: Would you ditch me if I told you I don't own Harry Potter?

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Lyla and Kayla walked slowly to Caitlin and I, eyes following the boys as they ran out the door. They made a sharp turn left, and were out of sight.

"What was that?" said Lyla. She was worried. As was I.

"I don't know." Caitlin answered. "I just don't know." We stood there, frozen, for maybe a minute as the party continued around us. I glanced at the other three. I took a small step towards the door, but hesitated, contemplating Sirius' recent words.

I made a snap decision not to heed his warning, and took off out the door. I could feel Caitlin, Kayla, and Lyla behind me.

We had run left, to the edge of the block when the group of us came to an abrupt stop. "Where do we go?" Kayla asked.

There was a yelp, and we ran toward it.

And what I saw was the greatest shock of all my life.

There was a big tree. It was dead. Against it, was a bleeding Peter. There was a great gash on his arm. James was trying to put pressure on it to stop the blood flow. And there was Sirius, crouching, still, a bit in front of Peter.

But that wasn't exactly the shock.

There, facing Sirius, was a full-fledged werewolf.

There was no doubt. It was Remus Lupin. And it was ready to strike.

Lyla screamed, alerting the four of our presence. And Remus lurched straight for us.

"NO!" Sirius yelled, and lunged into Remus Lupin…the werewolf.

The impact didn't set the werewolf off-course, but it distracted him. He made a grab for Sirius just after Kayla had thrown a rock at him.

"RUN!" James was shouting. It was hard to think that just minutes before I was dancing with these same friends at a party.

"AND WHAT?!?" Lyla screeched back. "LEAVE YOU HERE?"

"YES," Peter choked in reply.

Just then, Remus got a piece of Sirius. Luckily, it hadn't been his teeth that got the piece. Sirius crumpled over his leg, and I ran to shield him. I tugged his wand out of his grasp, and cast a shield charm over us. I didn't know if it would work in any way, shape or form.

"I don't know if that'll work," Sirius rasped.

"I don't know either," I said.

The werewolf was frenzied. He didn't know where to go.

Kayla was tearing off the ends of her dress and wrapping them around Peter's wound. Her shoes, which she had been carrying as she ran, lay at her feet where she had dropped them. Peter's red blood was seeping quickly into the white fabric. It was staining the snow we all stood on.

"How's your leg?" I asked Sirius, keeping up the shield. I didn't turn away from Remus's werewolf body.

The grey-eyed Marauder was shaking violently, even though it was paining his leg. I assumed that when Remus's arm slammed into his leg, it had done so with such force as to break the leg bone. In other words, this guy I was crouching over had a broken leg.

"It's probably broken." He said raggedly. "I'm trying to brace it with my hands so the damage isn't f-furthered." He was grinding his teeth.

And then, to my horror, Remus charged straight for Lyla. There was no one near her but Caitlin, who was five steps away and unarmed. None of us girls had brought wands, and that's why I was using Sirius's wand for the Shield Charm, which I still didn't know would do anything to help, should the werewolf come for us.

He opened his mouth, and I saw the werewolf's large, dangerous teeth, threatening to plunge straight into Lyla's body.

Quick as a flash, James was over to Remus and was knocking into the werewolf with all his might. Remus shifted weight to go for James, but the boy with glasses had done a tuck and roll, grabbed Lyla, and was running back to Peter and Kayla.

"That was so stupid!" I reprimanded quite loudly. "You could have just used a Stunning Spell!"

James had his hands on his knees and was supporting Lyla's weight, as she had promptly passed out from shock. He was gasping for breath and said stupidly, "Forgot about those."

"Would it have worked?" uttered Peter, whose bleeding was continuing.

Right at that moment, Sirius was on the snowy ground with a broken leg, I was protecting him. James was helping an unconscious Lyla, and Kayla was pressing the torn bits of her gown to Peter's vicious gash.

The only able one left was Caitlin.

Kayla threw Caitlin the wand nearest her. It was Peter's wand. "Stun him!" she yelled desperately.

Remus was advancing towards Caitlin slowly. She stood up straight, wand hanging by her side in a limp arm.

"Do it!" James shouted.

There stood Caitlin, in her beautiful red dress, tears slipping slowly over her cheeks. "I don't want to hurt him!" Her voice was watery. "I don't wanna hurt him," she repeated softly to herself.

All the while, Remus the werewolf was approaching her. It was getting scary.

James rocketed up, wrenched the wand from her death grip, and stunned Remus.

I watched the great wolf skitter back and fall, a cloud of snow shooting up slightly at his pressure. **(A/N: I'm not sure that actually would've worked, but let's just pretend Stunning Spells work on werewolves for the sake of the plot.)**

"Sorry Moony," he said calmly, as though Remus could hear him.

Caitlin had not moved. She was still crying. James grabbed her by the crook of the elbow and dragged her back to Lyla, Kayla, and Peter. "We have to move out. I don't think the effects of the spell will last very long." He struggled to pick Lyla's form up off the ground, and threw her over his shoulder. He was weak, tired. We all were. Peter and Kayla joined him. I helped Sirius up onto his good leg, and let him lean into me as we caught up.

Peter pressed his hand to his arm, which was still bleeding a bit. Kayla walked to Caitlin and hugged her. Because that's what she needed. A hug. We walked on, silent tears sliding down Caitlin's face.

We reached my house. It was a different universe.

"Okay," I sighed. "Sirius, you broke your leg because you climbed a tree and then fell out. Kayla, your dress snagged on a metal post-type thing. Peter, uh, _Episkey_! Shed those bloody rags." His gash healed up. **(A/N: I'm not sure if Episkey would've worked on that wound. Looks like I need to review my spells!)** "Let's see, Lyla fell asleep, and Remus went home. The only people we can ever tell the truth about this are Remus's parents."

"What do you think happened to him?" Caitlin asked meekly.

"He'll change back at dawn," Sirius whispered.

We walked, together, inside.

Immediately we were questioned. Nobody had really been worried about us; we hadn't been gone that long. But upon seeing Sirius's broken leg, there was a clamor.

"Sirius, what happened to your leg?" My mum Joanne was horrified.

"I fell out of a tree. It's broken."

"Come with me," Joanne said. "And Kayla, what did you do to your dress?"

"I ripped it on a fence post," Kayla responded robotically. My mum didn't ask about Lyla. I presumed she had already guessed she was sleeping.

We waited while Joanne, my mum, did what she could with Sirius's leg. It was now in a cast, and he was leaning on conjured crutches. He said there was no more pain.

I led the six, five conscious, to my room. I sat down on my bed and motioned everybody else to do the same.

"Sit down," I said to James and Peter, as Sirius had just gotten comfortable on his crutches. He leaned back against the wall. "We're going to talk about this werewolf business."

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How did you like this chapter? Please, please tell me in a **REVIEW**. I like it when people do that. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!


	8. Let's Talk

A/N: Oh my gosh. I haven't written in like, a month, and I hope you all haven't given up on this story! The reason I haven't updated is because I wen't on a two-week vacation right before school started, and then school kept me very busy. But don't worry, I'll be updating about once a week from this point on. If you don't remember what last happened, I suggest you reread the last chapter to refresh. Again, I have to give a big thank-you to readers and reviewers who have stuck with this story from the beginning. I apologize for any mistakes.

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The first thing Lyla said when she came to, was:

"TEETH!" She said this as she sat up wildly.

I heard my mother's footsteps coming to the door, so I rapidly threw Lyla a camera, thinking fast. She swatted at it in midair and it landed next to her on the bed.

"What was that?" my mum asked.

"Lyla was just taking a picture," I felt the words flow out, "she was telling us to smile with our teeth."

Lyla kind of ruined it by shrieking, "TEETH!" once again. Fortunately, Joanne didn't ask any questions, and left the room.

After Lyla had calmed down a smidge, she asked us what had happened.

Sirius was first to speak. "Remus almost got you. He almost bit you. But James here saved your life."

Lyla gulped and said in all seriousness, "Thank you so much James."

James just nodded. He was really, really tired. He had saved two lives in one night, Lyla's and Caitlin's.

"Anyway," I started up, breaking a silence. "Sirius, James, and Peter were just going to tell us all about Remus Lupin being a werewolf."

"Yeah," Sirius picked up the conversation, "but before we do, I need to know that none of you are against Remus now. Because of his er…wolfiness. I mean, you know that he's still the same guy."

"No," Caitlin said immediately, "we're not prejudiced."

"Alright." Sirius struggled over to the bed in his crutches. "So, Remus's been a werewolf since before he came to Hogwarts. But we only figured it out at the beginning of last year. Haven't you ever noticed his constant once-a-month absences?"

"Yes," Caitlin said.

"Well, now that you mention it…" Kayla stated as well.

"So now, in order to keep Remus in check during his transformation," Sirius continued, "Peter, James and I are each going to become an Animagus. We're working on that."

Lyla, Caitlin, Kayla, and I just stared at them vacantly.

"You've gone bonkers," Lyla said. "You're both nutters."

"No," James announced patiently, "we are not nutters."

"Alright then," I said. "Unregistered Animaguses?"

"Yep."

"Well," I went on, "you do that."

"You mean you won't tell?" Sirius asked.

"Of course we won't tell!" Kayla said.

"Alright. Good. Hey, what time is it?"

Caitlin checked the clock. "It's…ten-thirty. Later than I thought."

"Oh crap! I've gotta get going. Sneaking in is going to be harder than sneaking out."

James told Sirius, "It's okay, I'll let you borrow my cloak… I mean, that black one, so you blend in with the dark."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You have it with you?"

James looked around frantically for a second, and then said, "Oh. Sorry. I'm so used to having it on me everywhere I go."

"That's okay, man. It'll be good practice."

"What are you gonna do?" Lyla laughed. "Rob Gringotts?"

Sirius smiled, and answered, "You'll see." Then he exited the room.

Just then, James's parents came into the room. "It's time to go," they said. James left after Sirius.

We looked to Peter to comment on Sirius's last words. "He's just talking about pranks," he said. Then he left with his parents too.

Soon all the party guests were gone, and I was alone in my room, wondering about Remus, where he was right now in werewolf form. Then my thoughts wandered to Sirius. Had he gotten home okay?

I sure hoped everyone would be alright.

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A/N: So, this one was a shortie. But I'll be updating soon so please don't comment on how short it was. However, as always, I would like you all to **REVIEW**. I do accept anonymous reviews. And to clarify, James was talking about his invisibility cloak, but he made up a quick lie because the girls didn't know he had one. So, did you like this chapter? Please, please tell me!!! The next chapter will start in their fourth year. Thanks!


	9. Fourth Year: New Years' Concert!

Wow wow wow. Painfully short chapter, I know. There's no need to tell me how short it is, trust me I know. But the next one will be up quickly don't worry! This takes place in their fourth year.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Did you think I owned Harry Potter? Haha. I laugh at you.

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"Kay, you look amazing!"

Lyla, Caitlin, and I looked at the transformed Kayla. She looked like…a rock star!

The bottoms of her black leggings were concealed by her high-heeled black suede ankle boots. Kayla was wearing a completely white V-neck T-shirt and a black leather jacket. Her hair laid straight as sticks, just as usual. She hadn't gone too heavy on the make-up, just eyeliner with a small bit of black eye shadow shading out and up from the bottom of the lid, accompanied by clear lip gloss.

"Thanks!" she exclaimed, smiling.

"Oh, definitely," Lyla said. "You'll have plenty of fan-boys after tonight."

Kayla Vendera was doing a concert for the whole of Hogwarts that night. At the beginning of fourth year, she had suddenly taken up an interest in singing. She sang all the time, always audible in one way or another, and she had an amazing voice.

She was singing one day in December, we were walking by Professor Flitwick's classroom, when he came running out of the door yelling for us to stop. He asked who was singing, and we all pointed to Kayla. Professor Flitwick then complimented her on such an amazing voice, and asked if she had ever performed. He seemed astounded when she said she had not. Then he got all mysterious-like and waddled back into his classroom. We went through the rest of the day wondering what had happened there. The next day, Kayla received a message asking if she wanted to hold her own personal concert on New Years' Eve. "Geez' I'm not that good!" she initially stated, but shut up when we told her she was that good.

So there she stood in front of Caitlin, Lyla, and me.

"Don't worry, every guy in the school will be following you around," I commented.

"All except one," Kayla said. "The one who used to follow me around all the time." She huffed angrily. No, Kayla wasn't mad that James had finally gotten over her. He had just gotten over her way too much. He didn't talk to her anymore, and pretty much all together overlooked her presence. James paid her no mind. It wasn't in a rude way. It wasn't like he was evading Kayla on purpose. It was just like…like they weren't even friends.

"I don't know what I did to upset him," Kayla continued, "but nothing makes sense. He just acts like I'm not there! Is it too much to ask that I just want to be friends with him? Not acquaintances, and not together! Just be regular friends! And all the sudden he just starts ignoring me with no explanation, when I didn't even say anything to set him off!" Kayla was very angry.

"Alright, alright." Caitlin intervened. "Let's not get so riled up before you go on stage."

Kayla blinked. "You're right. I can't let all my friend problems bother me minutes before I perform. I'm so excited!"

"We are too," I assured her. "Us three plus Sirius, Remus, and Peter will be at the front of the crowd. I assume James will be too. Break a leg!"

With that, the three of us non-performers cleared out of the dressing room right next to the Great Hall. It hadn't been there before tonight, New Years' Eve. We all guessed that it would be gone in a couple days.

I walked in line with Caitlin and Lyla into the Great Hall.

It had turned into a concert-fit stadium. The lights were low. There was a large stage where the Staff Table used to stand. The rest of the room was cleared out and people were filing into the room. It was standing room only.

We wound our way through the massive crowd to the front. We found the three guys relatively easily.

"Is James gonna be here?" Caitlin asked Remus.

"Oh, he'll be here." Remus responded.

The time was 8:58 p.m. Kayla went on at nine. The concert lasted until eleven-thirty. Then it was just a regular party until…all night long.

8:59. I wondered what Kayla was thinking backstage right now.

Just then, all the lights went off. It was black and silent, aside from the tap of high-heeled boots on the stage.

* * *

There we go. There's the short chapter. I hope you liked it! Please please please tell me in a **REVIEW**. I love those. Also, I would love to hear who your favorite character is. Thanks!


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